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A review by srogan88
It Chooses You by Miranda July
3.0
3.75* I suppose? I may rate it higher if not for its loose association with her movie, as explained below.
This was an interesting book in two different ways.
1. The primary concept of this book - the author visiting and interviewing random people she contacts from the PennySaver - is well-done. If you take the book at face value, it's an entertaining read. Each visit is presented as its own chapter and the people she meets are unique, complex characters. She's very gentle and respectful of their stories and lives, taking care to focus on what makes them special and positive, even when visits become uncomfortable. The photos of the people and their homes/objects really add to the experience.
2. The secondary theme in this book pertains to how each of these visits affects the author both as a person and in her creative process in writing her screenplay at the time. I'm always fascinated to see how other people work so this theme was of great interest to me.
I saw the movie the author was writing, The Future, a couple of years ago. And, to be frank, I hated it. It was off-the-wall in ways I didn't enjoy and very sad as well. I disliked it so much that when I realized a few pages into the book that the reason the author's name had sounded familiar was because she wrote that movie, I was tempted to put the book down.
But her writing style and story-telling skills are very accessible. Almost enough so that I briefly considered rewatching the movie after finishing the book. Briefly considered and quickly vetoed.
If I hadn't seen the movie, I'd rate this 4*. And it would probably make me want to watch the movie. And then I'd come back and unfairly downgrade my rating to about 2*.
This was an interesting book in two different ways.
1. The primary concept of this book - the author visiting and interviewing random people she contacts from the PennySaver - is well-done. If you take the book at face value, it's an entertaining read. Each visit is presented as its own chapter and the people she meets are unique, complex characters. She's very gentle and respectful of their stories and lives, taking care to focus on what makes them special and positive, even when visits become uncomfortable. The photos of the people and their homes/objects really add to the experience.
2. The secondary theme in this book pertains to how each of these visits affects the author both as a person and in her creative process in writing her screenplay at the time. I'm always fascinated to see how other people work so this theme was of great interest to me.
I saw the movie the author was writing, The Future, a couple of years ago. And, to be frank, I hated it. It was off-the-wall in ways I didn't enjoy and very sad as well. I disliked it so much that when I realized a few pages into the book that the reason the author's name had sounded familiar was because she wrote that movie, I was tempted to put the book down.
But her writing style and story-telling skills are very accessible. Almost enough so that I briefly considered rewatching the movie after finishing the book. Briefly considered and quickly vetoed.
If I hadn't seen the movie, I'd rate this 4*. And it would probably make me want to watch the movie. And then I'd come back and unfairly downgrade my rating to about 2*.